


Sleeping Dogs

by Black_Briar



Series: The Medium [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Meteorstuck, Rape Aftermath, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 22:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16313894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Briar/pseuds/Black_Briar
Summary: When Dave and Rose show up on the meteor, five trolls are dead, one is permanently locked in a closet, and one has completely and mysteriously vanished.Or, Dave learns fast that truth is more painful than fiction.





	Sleeping Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> Hmm...I got dragged back into Homestuck. I blame the friendsim, which I resisted playing up until last week when I played ten hours in like two days. And while I'm still working on my next big story, I thought I'd release a little oneshot building off of a prior story! I quite enjoyed this, and I hope you guys do as well.
> 
> Happy reading!

Getting to the meteor had been hell.

Well, okay—mostly it had been a blur, what with the whole dying in a giant green explosion thing, but what Dave could remember definitely hadn't been on the pleasant side of possible events. Mostly there had just been a lot of pain and burning flesh. Maybe a little screaming.  _Ironic_  screaming. He absolutely had  _not_  been in enough pain to seriously cry out when the explosion burned all his skin off and cooked him like a turkey on Thanksgiving, served him up to the afterlife on a fall-themed platter.  _Absolutely not_.

Oh well. It wasn't as if he could recall much of it, anyway. When he'd finally awoken he'd been completely intact, sporting a bitchtits new outfit and a whole range of regenerative abilities. And what was more, he'd gotten the shock of his life.

There were aliens waiting for him. Fuckin' _aliens,_ man _._

_Goddamn_.

The trolls' meteor had been only a little ways off once he'd resurrected with Rose at his side. The two of them had blinked, stared at each other in shock as they realized that they'd just fucking  _died,_ and then a weird time fairy was flying out to meet them.

"Hello!" she'd called out, rust-red eyes crinkling around the edges as she smiled. It was a strained sort of smile, though, as if something really awful had happened and she was just twisting her facial muscles to mask it. Dave was familiar with the feeling. "You're Dave and Rose, right?"

"That's us," Rose agreed with a small frown. "And you are…?"

"Aradia Megido." She held out a hand in greeting. "I'm my session's time player, and I'm here to get you onto the meteor and take you to the new game session."

Right. New game session. That was totally a thing that was happening.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Aradia said. She'd no doubt picked up on the strange, haunted way Dave and Rose were watching her. "You just died; forgive my insensitivity. You must be quite startled, no?"

What? What did startled mean? He'd never heard of startled. "Nah, I'm chill. I've died like, a thousand times in different timelines so I'm used to dealing with my own corpse. It's cool. So cool. You have no  _idea_  how cool it is. It's like Christmas up in here, that's how cool it is. Like some kind of fucking mira—"

Rose shoved him lightly. "We're a bit rattled, yes. But…I believe that going to the meteor would be a good idea right now. Perhaps Kanaya is aboard?"

Aradia's expression twisted just slightly. "She is aboard, yes. However, I don't believe you'll be able to see her right away."

"What?" Rose asked, affronted. "Why not? Does she not wish to see me?"

"Oh no, of course not! It's just…" The fairy troll trailed off with a small shake of the head. "We had an…an  _incident,_ you might say, several hours ago. Kanaya will most likely be too busy helping clean up the aftermath to speak with you at length."

_An incident._ So that was why Aradia looked so disturbed. Something had happened.

"What went down?" Dave blurted out without thinking.

Aradia fixed him with a chilling look. "It's not my place to detail, but I can tell you that one of our own went on a killing rampage."

Rose sucked in a deep, pained breath. "A rampage?"

"Yes. Five of us are dead."

"Oh, goodness…" If there had been a wall to lean on, Rose certainly would have been slumped against it. Instead, she just placed a hand heavily onto Dave's shoulder. He let her. He was too shocked to push her away. "Who was killed?"

Another twinge of pain, this one stronger than the last. "Tavros, Nepeta, Equius, Eridan, and Feferi were all slaughtered like animals. Gamzee was the culprit."

"The clown troll," Dave recalled. "The one with the hate thing for the ICP."

"Yes, well…" Aradia's expression turned bitter. "Apparently Gamzee decided to have a hate thing for everyone on the meteor."

"Is everyone else okay?" Rose asked, but Dave knew what she really meant was  _is Kanaya okay?_

The fairy troll nibbled at her bottom lip. A sure sign of stress. "Kanaya will be fine, if that's what you're worried about. Obviously I'm unharmed, as I was not involved in the attack, and Sollux and Vriska are similarly unscathed."

"What about Rezi?" Dave pressed.

"She was hurt, but it seems that she'll be okay with a bit of healing. She's not easily put down."

That was something, at least. But there was one troll left that she hadn't mentioned. "And Karkat?"

It had been the wrong thing to ask. Aradia went stiff as a board, and Dave could practically see the mental walls going up around her. "He was very badly injured," she said. "Or at least, that's what Kanaya and Sollux have told me. None of the remaining trolls have been allowed to see him, so no one knows what happened other than those who are with him."

A jolt of pain shot straight through Dave's chest. He'd never been particularly close to the shouty little troll that called himself Karkat Vantas, but they'd had something of a friendship before the scratch and he didn't like the thought of him being hurt.  _Especially_ if it was as bad as Aradia made it sound.

"Will he recover?" Rose inquired, and her usual clinical behavior was pierced through with a dart of quivering anxiety. "Losing the leader of your session would be…"

Aradia just shook her head helplessly. "Kanaya and Sollux would be the only ones that have an idea of that, and they're not communicating with anyone on the outside right now. Whatever's happened to Karkat…it must be bad."

Silence engulfed them.

"Come on," Aradia said after a moment. "We need to get on the meteor and get moving before Jack shows up. The clock has run down, so our time is incredibly limited."

Dave clapped his hands. Was he nervous? Absolutely not. No fucking way. "Great!" he exclaimed. "In that case, I think I'll just go check out a few areas of the meteor. You know, just explore and—"

"Dave, don't look for Karkat," Aradia commanded.

_Well, there goes that idea._

"Sollux and Kanaya are with him now. They'll do what they can to help him without your interference."

Ouch, okay. Message received.

"I'm sure Dave and I can busy ourselves with something else," Rose said swiftly. She shot him a sharp glance. "Let's go."

Rose grabbed onto his arm, Aradia fluttered to the back of the meteor to get them on their way, and Dave found himself being tugged down and into the strange metal building that served as a home for the remaining trolls.

Dave then proceeded to flip his shit.

Seriously. His ass was currently hosting an all-you-can-eat pancake buffet, and all the chefs in the kitchen were currently awaiting his orders to just start flipping as fast as they could. Except the pancakes were actually shit, and the restaurant was actually shit, and everything was actually shit and the shit was flipping itself all over the place. It was bad.

There was blood everywhere. He wouldn't have known it was blood (the weird colors were fucking insane), but the coppery scent gave it away. It was blood, and it was splattered all over the walls like someone had just decided to fingerpaint in their friends' bodily fluids.

"Oh god," Rose breathed when she saw it. They were just casually walking down a hallway as per Aradia's instructions, heading for what was supposed to be the main room of the lab, and there was blood all over the place. It was sick.

But that was nothing compared to what they found when they finally reached the main room.

When the doors slid open, there was a moment when there was just silence. But then the situation registered. It registered that there were goddamn  _pulverized_ troll bodies all over the place, one of the aliens still up and kicking and trying to clean the mess, blood pouring from every last nook and cranny the room had to offer, and Rose had to quietly lean off to one side to throw up.

"Hey," the only upright troll said wearily. "You guys made it."

Dave had to take a moment to compose himself. He was a cool guy, but this was just too much.

The troll cocked her head. Then her eyes widened, and she said, "Oh, shit—I forgot that troll blood might be a little much for you guys. Sorry about that. But it kinda sucks for me too, you know."

Rose swallowed so hard it was audible. "Dave."

He patted her on the shoulder. "Why don't you step out for a while? Calm yourself down."

She nodded. Swallowed down a gag. "Yes, that…that would be best. Thank you." She turned and vanished without another word.

Dave took a deep, calming pull of air. Let it out in a steady whoosh. "So," he said finally, "which one are you?"

"I'm Vriska." She waved a hand. Her body language spoke volumes about her fire and spunk, about her refusal to take shit from  _anyone_ , but right now her tone was subdued and exhausted. Dave supposed that losing five friends in one day would do that to a person. "Or Serket, if you like. Don't really care what you call me right now."

"Yeah, I'd imagine so." Dave took another step into the room and looked around. Five bodies, just like Aradia had described. Most of them unrecognizable save for the color of their blood and their horns. "Need a hand?"

"You gonna throw up like Lalonde if I say yes?"

"Nah, I'm too cool for that."

Vriska paused. Eyed him up. "Strider, right?"

"That's me."

"Hmm." She turned her gaze down on the body she was working with. The poor thing was a mess of olive green pulp, and it looked like Vriska was having a hard time getting the body into a position that would make lifting it in one piece possible. "Fine. If you want to help so bad, then get over here and give me a hand. And  _don't_ complain about the smell—I've been soaking in my friends' blood all goddamn day."

"You got it, boss." Dave practically waded through the blood to get to where Vriska was standing. The closer he got the more he wanted to vomit, but he knew that throwing up all over alien bodies would be the most uncool thing he could possibly do in this situation, and so he swallowed hard and leaned down, hooking his arms underneath the tattered remains of the troll's legs and motioning for Vriska to get the poor thing's upper half. "So," he said as he began to lift the body with his new acquaintance's help. "What happened to the joker that did this?"

"You mean Gamzee?" Vriska sneered. "He's been trussed up and left to rot in one of the lower rooms of the lab. After what he did, it's the best case scenario."

"Why not just kill him?" Dave winced as olive blood slid up his arm and lapped at his sleeves.  _Nasty._

Vriska shrugged. "Can't be killed. Believe me, I tried. Multiple times. The fucker's not getting out again, and that's the best we can hope for."

"…Right."

Vriska kicked the back door of the room open and guided Dave towards a hatch in the ceiling. Momentarily releasing the body, she reached up and pulled down a ladder that led to the exterior of the meteor. "This'll be tricky. Think you can handle it?"

"Bring it on."

Vriska shot him a disingenuous smirk and took hold of the body once more. She backed herself up against the ladder and started to awkwardly maneuver herself up it without letting the dead troll drop, Dave following with his newfound ability to fly. "Sorry about this. It's probably not what you expected to find when you finally met us."

"Well, five of you are dead and one is locked up forever. So yeah, maybe not the most idea of circumstances. Not to mention that Karkat is…" He hesitated. "Hurt, I guess? You know anything about that?"

Vriska shook her head. "Kanaya and Sollux have been real quiet about it. Apparently Gamzee really ripped him a new one."

Dave's eyebrows drew together in a worried furrow. "Geez…I hope he's okay."

"The kid's a tough nut to crack," Vriska said, grunting as she finally reached the top of the ladder and pulled her friend's body up onto the top of the meteor. "I'm sure he'll be fine, even if it  _was_ his moirail that flipped his shit."

Right, moirails—the cuddlebros quadrant thing. He remembered Karkat talking about that.

Vriska leaned down and prompted Dave to set the olive body down. The poor thing barely even looked like a troll anymore.

Dave watched, unsure of what to say as Vriska stared down at the body with a strange, haunted look in her eyes. Should he try to comfort her? Sure, she'd gotten John killed a while back, but that seemed unimportant in the face of such a tragedy. She'd just lost half her friends. She needed support.

"Well then!" Vriska said before Dave could start trying to talk her down. "There are four more bodies to clean up. Let's get going."

The two of them vanished down into the lab once again.

 

* * *

 

Dave learned a lot after that.

He learned that it took a good few hours to drag all five troll bodies up onto the top of the meteor. He learned that getting the blood out of the floor was simply a matter of having Rose use her magic to burn it away. He learned that his ecto-sister was even stronger than he'd thought.

He learned that the trolls had no idea what a funeral was. Apparently they just let the bodies rot on Alternia, or just buried them quietly or ate them or some shit, because when Rose brought up the concept of mourning the dead, Vriska and Aradia just stared at her like she was crazy. After she explained what a funeral meant, she led those who were still alive and able to walk (which really just ended up being Aradia, Vriska, and Dave) up to where the bodies were lined up neatly in a row. She said nothing. She just let the remaining trolls mourn in silence for a good few minutes before walking up and raising her wand, and vaporizing the bodies in a flash of light.

He learned that Terezi was still alive. But no—he'd already known that. More accurately, he learned where she was and what she doing. Apparently she'd been run through by Gamzee with one of her own swords, but Vriska had removed the weapon and patched her up and moved her into her area of the lab. She was still there now, protected by the fact that the lab was a maze and the only effective way to get around was by using sign-protected teleporters. It was still possible to find different trolls' areas of the lab, Dave found out, but it was just a hell of a lot harder.

So he could still find Karkat if he tried hard enough.

Something else Dave learned was that not seeing Karkat around had a strangely negative effect on him. He didn't like the guy, he  _didn't_ —but he supposed that he'd just gotten used to the little guy's constant shouting over the months, the way he was always there to pop up and roar in his ear about everything he was doing wrong.

_Oh man,_ his mind whispered to him.  _You miss him. You're so lame._

And hey, maybe he was. But that wasn't what he was worried about right now.

Rose seemed even more on edge than when she'd first arrived. She kept waiting for Kanaya to emerge from wherever she was hiding, but it hadn't happened yet and they'd been on the meteor for hours.

"She's taking care of Karkat," Aradia had reassured her countless times. "Just relax. This meteor isn't going to reach its destination for three years, like you calculated. You have time."

…Yeah. That was the other thing.

Apparently the meteor wasn't going to get to the new game session for three entire years. They were going to spend  _three years_  in this place.

Aradia was right, they had time.

That was the problem.

For the next few days, everyone drifted along in silence. The lab was cleaned up entirely, everything was in order, and there was nothing to do but hang around and wait for the other trolls to emerge. When Terezi showed up around the second day of waiting, it was a relief. She was still weak, and a lot of her fire was hidden beneath a tidal wave of gripping pain, but she was alive. That was all that mattered. When asked what had happened, she had only a little more information than Vriska and Aradia. She described with perfect detail how Gamzee had dropped in out of nowhere and torn them all apart, sparing her life purely by accident.

Rose had nearly thrown up again after her description was done. Dave came close to following suit.

Terezi knew nothing of Karkat, though, nor did she know what had become of Kanaya and Sollux. They were alive and well, based on their short trollian messages, but they still refused to reveal a thing about what was going on with their red-blooded friend.

When the third day drew to an end, Dave couldn't take it any longer.

"I'm going to go walk around," he said to Rose, who was sitting with him at the kitchen table. "Don't wait up."

She just nodded blearily. She was tired, but sleeping had been hard so long as she remained worried about her…girlfriend? Was Kanaya her girlfriend?

Whatever. He'd worry about his sister's love life later. Or never. Probably never.

Dave slipped into the bowels of the lab without giving it a second thought.

He promptly decided that just walking around was probably his best option if he wanted to find Karkat, Sollux, or Kanaya. And so he got himself lost, winding deeper and deeper until he had absolutely no clue where he was.

It was kinda dark. Dingy. Smelly.

For the longest time, there was nothing. He just kept walking and walking, no sign of any life around him, and eventually he really started to think that the other trolls were actually dead and somehow communicating from beyond the grave. Their bodies weren't here, no way. Nope. There were no other living beings in the lab. He was wasting his time. Hell, maybe he'd just lie down and take a nap right on the ground, try to get some of his lost hours back that he'd lost because of the missing trolls'  _lies_.

Oh, dang—what was that?

Dave cocked his head to one side and listened hard. Had that been…?

"…be fine. I'm sure he'll wake up within the day."

Oh yeah. That was a voice.

"But what if he doesn't? KN, he's been out for three days without a single sign of awakening."

A pause. "I know. I  _know_ , Sollux. But there's nothing we can do."

Dave crept towards the voices. He didn't recognize them, never having heard the trolls speak, but it had to be Kanaya and Sollux. Karkat would have sounded a lot angrier if he were there, he knew.

"What are we going to tell the others if he doesn't wake up?"

Dave's eyes locked onto a door that was cracked just a few inches open. The voices were coming from inside.

"I don't know what we're going to tell them. Just…that Gamzee attacked and injured him so badly that he couldn't recover."

"So we lie."

"Do you really think Karkat would want them to know the truth?"

Dave slid right up to the door and peered inside, but all he saw was black. Either the lights were out or someone was standing right against the door.

"I…"

"He wouldn't. He wouldn't want that."

"KN, I just don't…don't  _know_. What he would want."

"Well we're not going to have to worry about that until he either dies or awakens, so let's not dwell on it too much." Someone shuffled around behind the door. "Come here. He needs you."

More shuffling. "He isn't conscious. He doesn't need anyone."

"Sollux Captor, get over here and hold your matesprit!"

"He's not my matesprit!"

"Not yet, but you're clearly waxing red and I don't know what else to call him!"

Dave's stomach twisted suddenly, and he got the feeling that this was wrong, that he was hearing something private and personal between the two trolls. He'd admit to having wanted to crash in and force them to let him see Karkat. But now…

He backed away from the door. Karkat was safe but unconscious, and that knowledge was enough. He would let Kanaya and Sollux talk when they were ready.

 

* * *

 

One day later, Sollux appeared in the main room looking like someone had run him over with a pickup truck.

"You've got four horns," was the first thing Dave said, and it was so uncool that he nearly bashed his face into his desk. He'd just—he'd been caught off guard, okay, and he couldn't help but blurt out the first thing he noticed.

Sollux looked at him like he was insane. "Care to comment on my eyes, too, fuckface?"

Woah. Fiery. Kinda like Karkat, but…nerdier. Maybe a little weirder.  _Maybe_.

"Sollux!" Aradia exclaimed, getting to her feet and fluttering over to him. "You're okay!"

He offered her a weary smile. "Yeah, AA, I'm fine. KN is doing okay too, but she's hanging back with KK for a little while longer." He looked up to Rose, saying, "She says hi."

Rose practically melted with relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

"Save the mushy redrom shit for later," Vriska snapped. "How's nubs doing?"

Sollux's lips quirked upwards the slightest amount. "He's awake. KN is with him now trying to figure out if his think pan is still intact, so we won't know more until she comes out or I go back."

"So are we good to see him now?" Dave asked.

Sollux  _glared._ "Just give him some space! You have no idea what he's had to go through, and—"

"What  _did_  he go through?" Vriska demanded, gaze hard. "What could possibly have happened that put someone as stubborn as Karkat Vantas out for four days?"

"Not my place to say."

"Not your place? Damn it, Sollux, we deserve to know what happened!"

"Yeah, you do. And once KK is good to come out, he can tell you himself."

"But—"

Sollux groaned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Look. I've been hanging around KK for four days, helping KN keep him alive and trying to tend to my own wounds. Just let me grab something to eat and take a moment to rest, and then you can keep needling me for as long as you want. Sound good?"

Vriska just stared for a moment, mouth open. But then she took a step back, seeming to reconcile herself with the situation, and allowed Sollux to push past with an almost tangible air of frustration. "Fine."

Sollux brushed past Dave on his way to the kitchen.

Dave drifted along behind him with a small frown.  _You know what's going on with Karkat,_ he thought, watching as the strangely-colored troll fiddled with the refrigerator.  _Just tell us. Tell us what's wrong with him._  He shadowed Sollux as he closed the fridge and moved to the mini alchemiter in the center of the kitchen, typing in a code and grabbing the food that appeared on the tiny platform.

Sollux paused. Glanced over his shoulder. "Do you  _need_  something?"

Dave flew back a few feet. He hadn't realized he was getting so close. "No. Don't need a thing."

The troll's featured crinkled in a way that suggested he was glaring from behind his goggles. "Don't lie to me, human. You want to know about KK."

That was exactly what he wanted. "I mean, if you're willing to spill."

Sollux sighed. Looked down at his meal forlornly. "You're not even going to let me eat, are you." It wasn't a question.

"I'm chill. Eat if you want."  _Tell me now. Right now._

Another sigh. Then, "Fine. I'm still not going to give you any details, but I can tell you a little more if you like."

Dave shrugged.

"GZ messed him up in the pan. Hurt him physically, but more mentally. I don't know how bad it is; that's what KN is trying to figure out right now. We do know he'll survive at this point, so I guess that's a good thing, but…" He trailed off with a weary little groan. "He'll probably be really different for a while. I don't even know if he'll be able to come back to the main lab anytime soon."

_What did Gamzee do?_

"Just sit back for a while," Sollux advised. "KN will get KK back on his feet as soon as she can."

It wasn't satisfying. Dave wanted Sollux to look at him and tell him everything, tell him exactly how Gamzee had gone about hurting Karkat and what it was going to take to get him back on his feet. He wanted to know every little detail.

Sollux pushed past him. "Be patient. I'm worried too."

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, being patient meant waiting nearly a full week for anything to happen.

Those six days were some of the worst Dave had ever experienced. It wasn't just his own concern that was making it bad, too—it was the way Rose sat in the main room and just stared at a computer, not really doing anything, just quietly waiting for Kanaya to appear. It was the way Terezi paced up and down the halls, clearly worried to death but unwilling to talk about it. It was the way Vriska went ranting and raving up and down the main room, practically taking Karkat's place in yelling at everyone in fits of frustration.

Aradia of all people held everyone together. Even though she was obviously just as worried as everyone else, she fluttered around and offered moral support and conversed with Sollux about Karkat's condition whenever she could. Sollux was out in the main room a lot more now, saying he didn't feel that he was welcome while Kanaya worked with her moirail. As was such he'd fallen out of the loop, receiving only a few stray messages from Kanaya to keep him updated. He seemed quiet. Something was clearly wrong, but he wouldn't tell anyone what. Even Aradia, someone he seemed to be quite close to, was pushed away.

In short, everyone was on edge.

It was the worst week. The  _worst._

Eventually, though, as the seventh day began, everyone received a pleasant surprise.

It started with footsteps echoing down the hallway, slowly making their way to the main room and shoving open the door. At the time, Dave hadn't thought much of it. Maybe Sollux was stopping by again, or Vriska was back to yell at everyone.

Then, "Kanaya!"

Dave looked up in mild surprise, and sure enough, there she was. A tall, wiry troll with long horns and pale skin. A Virgo symbol shimmered in iridescent fabric from the center of her dress.

The troll dipped her head in greeting. "Rose, I cannot tell you how good it is to see you in person."

Rose was on her feet in a heartbeat, and Dave looked away politely as his ecto-sister pulled her girlfriend (she was her girlfriend, right? Did Rose know she was her girlfriend?) into a crushing embrace. "Kanaya," she repeated in a soft, shaking tone. "Thank goodness…I was worried that something had happened to you, despite everyone's reassurances that you were unharmed."

There was a gentle laugh. "No, I'm quite all right. And Karkat is doing much better, too!"

Dave whipped his head around at the speed of light.

"He's still a little…" Kanaya hesitated, waving her hand in a strange, noncommittal gesture. "A little  _off_ , I suppose. "But he's doing better than he was, and I think he may be able to rejoin you soon."

_Finally!_ Then Dave paused. When had he gotten this concerned about Karkat? He didn't even really  _like_  the guy. What he felt for him leaned a lot more towards annoyance.

"That's good," Rose said. "And will you be staying out here from now on?"

"I'll have to go back to him soon," was the reluctant response. "He's my moirail, Rose—I'll always have to put aside time for him. But I do think that sooner rather than later, the time required to keep him calm will decrease substantially. I should be able to begin living normally in the near future."

Dave cleared his throat. "The guy's that much of a wreck that you have to  _keep him calm?"_

"He's getting better."

Well, okay, that hadn't really answered his question. But Rose was already springing into the next topic of conversation, and Kanaya was already watching her with rapt attention, and Dave didn't think that interrupting their happy reunion would do much for his health. He just got to his feet calmly and left the main room in search of… _something._

He didn't really know what he was looking for.

He didn't know until late that night, when he found himself wandering a series of familiar hallways deep in the interior of the lab where he'd overheard the conversation between Sollux and Kanaya a few days earlier. This was around where Karkat was being held.

_Hey, Kanaya did say that he was doing better…maybe I can find him and talk to him about all this._

His heart absolutely did  _not_ leap with excitement at the thought of getting to talk to Karkat again. He absolutely was  _not_ already coming up with new ways to antagonize him. Nope. Not at all. Not happening.

_It's so late, though,_ he realized. To be fair, there weren't really day-night cycles in the outer reaches of paradox space, without a sun to rise and set, but it was still around the time where everyone normally slept. And of course, Karkat was still recovering. It was likely that he wouldn't be awake, and in that case even if he wasn't being guarded by Kanaya it would be impossible to speak with him. Dave didn't think he was so much of an asshole that he would drag a recovering troll out of well needed rest just for a conversation that could wait a few days.

He sighed, already preparing himself for disappointment. He'd just go back to the room he'd claimed as his own, wait things out, and—

He paused. Cocked his head.  _Was that…?_

Then he heard it again.  _Yep. Those are footsteps._

A thrill of excitement ran through him. If someone was walking around here, it had to be either Kanaya or Sollux. If he could talk to them, maybe he could get a little more information out of them. At this point, he'd be willing to kill for even a little more information, if not just to set his friends' minds at ease.

Dave lifted himself up off the ground silently. He didn't want to be heard. Then he drifted forward, careful not to bump into any doors, and headed for the source of the footsteps. The more he moved the louder they got, and before long he caught sight of a dark outline pacing down towards where he knew a kitchenette was located. A little too short to be Kanaya, but  _way_ too short to be Sollux. He couldn't even see the outline of horns.

…And hadn't several of the trolls referred to Karkat as 'nubs?' Because his horns were way too short to do any damage?

The figure stumbled, then let out a muffled curse.

_Oh yeah. That's Karkat._

Dave was in motion before he had time to think about what he was doing. "Hey, Karks!" he called out.

The figure turned. The instant he saw Dave his eyes went wide as plates, and his mouth opened and closed repeatedly in mute shock. He stepped back.

"Karkat," he called again, flying towards him. "Bro, long time no see!" He set down in front of the troll with a wide smirk. "Or, like,  _all_ time no see? Not like we've seen each other in person before, I guess."

Karkat took another step back. He was beneath one of the dim hallway lights now, the ones that were turned to half intensity so people could sleep without being assaulted with lighthouse-esque blades of light piercing their eyeballs, and for the first time Dave got a good look at Karkat Vantas.

He was…smaller than he'd expected. Dave's lips quirked slightly downwards as he took in everything—the hunched shoulders, the bags under his eyes, the way his nubby little horns stuck just barely up out of his tangled mess of hair, the disarray of his clothing, his lack of shoes, the startled, almost afraid look on his face. He looked like a wreck. Like something had happened to make him wary of everyone and everything, and Dave being there was just making him more and more tense by the second.

But hey, if Dave had been forced to wait in agonizing silence for over a week to hear even the slightest bit of news, then Karkat could handle having a little conversation before he went slinking back to his room.

Karkat stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "Dave?" he rasped finally. "You—you're Dave."

"Uh, yeah." Dave took a step closer. Karkat took a step back. "You did know that Rose and I showed up here, right?"

Karkat kept taking a step back for every one Dave took forward. "Y-yeah," he managed. "Yeah. Kanaya…she told me."

What was with his voice? He sounded all…raspy. And  _weak_. He wasn't even cussing every other word. "Hey, so what happened to you?"

Karkat curled in on himself like a kicked cat. "I don't want to talk about it. Please, just—"

"Dude, we've been in the dark for like a week!" Dave complained. "Come on. Be a pal. Everyone's really worried, you know? I think Rezi's about to start climbing the walls."

"I r-really don't think—"

"Karkles," he groaned, "dude. Bro. Pal. Best friend."

Karkat stiffened like a board, like Dave had said something wrong. Stumbled back until his back hit the wall. "Oh, no," he groaned. "No, no, no, no…"

Dave lurched forward in shock. "Yo, Karks! Don't keel over on me!"

The troll flattened himself against the wall. Both hands came up in front of him, shaking hard. "D-don't come closer, okay? Just…stay over there."

He immediately came closer. "Hey, stop sliding down the wall! You'll hit your head or some shit, or mess your face up when you hit the ground, and you don't need anything else to damage your face. You're already short, can you imagine what would happen if you were ugly, too?"

"Stay back!" Karkat begged. "You don't understand!"

"Then tell me, dude." He kept moving forward until he was standing right over Karkat, bracing a hand on the wall and leaning in close. "Come on. Why don't we have some kind of  _amazing_ fucking party where you tell me what's going on with you and maybe I can be persuaded to back off?"

"P-please—"

"Tell me what happened, then I'll step back."

"Strider—"

He should have stepped back. In retrospect, it was without a doubt the most intelligent thing he could have done. Karkat was clearly suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress disorder, and yelling at him or getting upset was only going to act as a trigger. But Dave, unfortunately, wasn't feeling very smart at the moment.

"Just fucking tell me, dude! How bad could it be? I bet it was something stupid, like Gamzee just stabbed you in the stomach or something and you're being a baby about it. I bet he—"

But he didn't get further than that, because suddenly he was leaping back in shock as Karkat screeched as if he'd been set on fire.

"Karkat—!"

He wasn't listening anymore. All Dave could do was stare in abject horror as the troll he'd barely just met fell to his knees and  _screamed,_ hands burying in his hair, tiny red rivulets dripping down from where he'd snagged his skin. Then he screamed again, and again, wailing desperately, and it took all of one second for Dave to figure out that he needed to seal his palms over his ears or risk losing his hearing temporarily. The guy was  _loud._

Something clanged behind him.

A gasp. "Karkat!" Then footsteps rushing forward, and a pair of furiously powerful hands shoving him out of the way. "Oh no, Karkat, you're okay, you're fine, I've got you!"

Now it was Dave's turn to flatten himself against the wall as he watched Kanaya (who had emerged from a door that no doubt led to the room she'd been sharing with Karkat, hoping to watch over him to avoid just this situation) rush to her moirail's side and drop down to pull him into a fierce embrace.

"Shh," Kanaya whispered over and over again. Her hands came up to soothe over Karkat's hair, to brush along the bases of his horns, to slide along his cheeks and run down his arms, soothing him with whispered words and gentle touches. "Shoosh, Karkat, no one will hurt you here. Whatever Dave said, he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know, Karkat, do you understand that?"

Dave just barely picked up on Karkat's answering whimper.  _Fuck._ He was really messed up.

"You'll be okay," Kanaya went on. By now Karkat's distressed screeching had faded into soft whines and tiny, keening chirrs, and Kanaya's voice grew even softer now that she didn't have to fight to be heard. "I'll take you back to your room, and I can hold you for a while. Is that okay?"

Karkat reached out with searching fingers, folding into his moirail with fierce desperation. "T-thought you said… _s-safe_  here…"

"Oh, Karkat, you  _are_  safe here. Dave wasn't going to hurt you." She glared up at Dave. "Were you?"

He started, "No, dude, no way was I going to do anything to hurt even a hair on that tiny little head of yours. In fact, I was  _so_  not—"

Kanaya cleared her throat. "See? Come on, put your arms around me."

Karkat didn't say anything else. He just curled his arms around Kanaya's neck and braced himself there as she scooped him up and cradled him to her chest like a child.

"Uh," Dave started, feeling like he should say something,  _anything,_ to justify what he'd just caused. "I…"

Kanaya beat him to it. "Go back to the main room," she growled. "I'll deal with you later."

He gulped.

 

* * *

 

When Kanaya reentered the main room, the door slamming open with a tremendous  _bang,_ Dave knew he was in for it.

"Dave Strider," she snarled, "what part of  _don't go looking for Karkat_ didn't you understand? I seem to recall both Sollux and myself warning you  _countless_ times over the past week that going after him would only end in disaster, and look what happened!"

Dave flew a good few feet back. He'd seen what Kanaya did to people that threatened the safety of her friends, and right now he knew  _exactly_  which side of the equation he was on. "Woah, woah! I messed up, I get it!"

"You do  _not_  get it! Perhaps you never will, seeing as everything that I attempt to explain seems to go in one ear and out the other!"

Dave glanced helplessly around for help. Unfortunately it was very late, and the only other person in the lab was Rose. And if it came down to siding with her girlfriend or her estranged ecto-brother…

"Kanaya!" Rose got to her feet with an alarmed look. "What happened?"

Kanaya carried on as if she hadn't spoken. "I don't know what I expected. Someone as simple minded as you couldn't possibly be expected to understand the intricacy of troll romance, let alone comprehend the trauma of being betrayed by a moirail and being forced into the black quadrant!"

"Then explain it to me," he tried weakly. "I  _do_ know I messed up, so tell me  _how_."

Rose's expression hardened, and she said, "Dave, what did you do?"

"I just—"

"He went looking for Karkat and drove him into a panic attack!"

"He  _what?"_

"It was a mistake!" Dave yelped, raising his hands as Rose turned on him with a dangerous glower. "I didn't mean to hurt him, I swear!"

"No," Kanaya agreed, "I'm sure you didn't—but you ended up quite possibly setting us back  _weeks,_ and so long as there's someone walking around with the ability and the motive to hurt him again, I don't believe I will be able to rest easy!"

"I don't have the  _motive_  to hurt him," Dave corrected. "I was curious—still am, actually—but now that I see how bad he is there's no way I'm going back there."

"Don't play games! I watched the two of you during the game, and I've seen the way you act whenever the subject of his health is brought up, and—"

"Woah, just what are you suggesting?"

"I'm hardly suggesting anything; I'm more stating facts. And as things stand, it's a  _fact_ that you are obviously waxing black for him, and  _have_  been for  _weeks!"_

"What the fuck is  _that_  supposed to mean?"

"It  _means_  that you want to act as a challenger for him, someone to push him and prod at all of his weak spots and tease him relentlessly. And while that may be good for him eventually, right now a black encounter is the absolute  _last_  thing he needs. After what Gamzee did to him…"

"And what exactly  _did_ Gamzee do to him? I keep hearing talk of all the awful things the guy got up to, but no one will actually tell us shit about it!"

Kanaya blanched.

"Oh," Dave scoffed, "I'm sorry. Are you not allowed to say anything yet? Still waiting for Karkat to put his big boy pants on and tell us himself? Just when the fuck do you think that's actually gonna happen, huh? Weeks? Months? How long are we expected to stay in the dark on this?"

"It's not just you. Terezi and Vriska are also concerned, but—"

"Yeah, I know they are! And so is Rose, and so am I, and so is  _everyone!_  But here you are, telling us to just keep worrying when you could gladly ease all our troubles with just a few words!"

"Dave."

"Yeah, what?"

"Karkat was raped."

He froze. Stared in shock, every muscle locked in what could only be described as abject horror.

"Is that what you wanted to hear? A few words to ease your troubles?"

Dave drew in a deep, shaking breath. "Oh, fuck."

"I take it that that wasn't what you'd hoped to hear?"

He barely heard her. He was too busy staring at a wall, mind blank, trying to process what he'd just been told. This…this explained  _everything_. It explained why Karkat had looked at him with such horror, had backed away when he'd come closer, had begged him to stay away and burst out into desperate wails when he hadn't.

He—he knew all those signs. He knew them because he'd felt them, back all that time ago when Bro had come home drunk and—

Dave choked and struggled to regain his composure. "Gamzee," he managed at last. "Gamzee did this?"

Kanaya nodded. Then she turned, gaze flitting over to Rose, who was watching her with rapt attention. "Now you know. You know why Sollux and I are having such a difficult time trying to help him. Hopefully this will be enough to deter any future visits or attempts to locate and interact with him."

Another stuttering breath, this one a little smoother than the last. A choppy exhale. "Yeah," Dave rasped. "Okay. I'll stay away."

Rose gave a silent nod.

"Good," Kanaya said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to my moirail. I have no idea what kind of mental state he's in right now."

"Hey, wait!" Dave called, taking a step after her as she started to retreat. "Gamzee did this—so where are you keeping him? You said he was tied up in a back room or some shit?"

Kanaya's eyes flashed. "Do  _not_  go looking for him."

"Sheesh, I'm not gonna go looking for him! I was just curious."

"Then let yourself remain curious."

Dave opened his mouth to protest, but Kanaya was already gone.

 

* * *

 

Dave found Gamzee approximately two days later, after kicking in a door that he'd found mysteriously locked in the back of the lab. It had taken a long time to wind his way that far into the place, but eventually he'd found it—and when he finally managed to gain access to the room, he was greeted with a sorry sight.

The trolls hadn't been lying when they said they'd tried to kill Gamzee in every way imaginable. The guy looked beat up to the extreme, bruises across his face (which was covered in remnants of white and gray paint), lacerations across his bare chest, indigo crusted around a split lip, fingers bent in odd directions. He'd been trussed up so tightly that he could barely even tilt his head up to look at Dave as he walked in. He'd been gagged with a strip of material that had probably once been white, but was now stained bright with blood.

"You Gamzee?" he asked, even though it was painfully obvious that he was.

The clown narrowed his eyes, then nodded once, sharply. His teeth clenched visibly over the gag.

Dave closed the door. "So you're the one that hurt Karks."

Another nod, this one punctuated with a vicious glare.

"Hmm." Dave stepped further into the room. His fingers itched with the desire to pull his sword out of his sylladex and just take it right to Gamzee's hideous face. "So you're the one I'm gonna have to kill."

The clown bared his teeth to the best of his ability. Made a low, snarly noise from behind the strip of cloth.

"The others say you can't be killed," Dave went on, unconcerned. Gamzee could snarl all he wanted; he was the one with power here. "Think I can prove them wrong?"

Gamzee just glared harder.

Hmph…it wasn't as fun when he couldn't defend himself. Dave reached out and ripped the gag from his mouth. "Anything to say for yourself before I start swinging?"

The clown troll let out a rasping cough. "Motherfucker!" he managed to snarl, though his voice sounded weak from disuse. "Hittin' a brother when he's down…you that much of a motherfucking coward?"

"I'll embrace cowardice in the name of revenge."

He smirked. "That's real poetic. Romantic, even. You pick that up from Karbro?"

_"Don't,"_ Dave snarled, plucking his sword out of thin air and jabbing the tip up under Gamzee's chin, "you  _dare_ put his name to your filthy lips."

"What's got you so motherfucking serious?"

"You fucking  _know_ what it is. You sexually assaulted Karkat, and back on my planet people who do that…" He trailed off. "Well, actually, they aren't punished nearly as severely as they should be. But this isn't my old planet, this is  _here,_ and I say you're going to pay in exactly the way people like you should."

"And that is…?"

Dave held up his sword. "How do you feel about castration? You took something from Karkat, so I'll take something from you."

Gamzee growled. "You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" Dave pointed his sword right between the troll's legs. Gamzee was right—he  _wouldn't_ —but letting him know that wouldn't exactly help his case. "You'd better start repenting, or I start cutting."

"Just what the motherfuck do you want me to up and motherfucking say to you, brother? That I'm sorry? 'Cause I'm not."

"No," Dave agreed, "you're not. Actually, I guess I'm just waiting for the right time to drive this through your skull and be done with it."

"You can try, motherfucker, but it won't motherfucking work. They already tried."

"Oh, I'm sure they did—but they're not me."

Gamzee laughed. "So that's it, is it? You're waxin' black for Karbro and here to get some motherfucking  _wicked_ revenge on his behalf?"

"I'm not waxing black for anyone," Dave snapped. "This is just me being a bro, taking out someone who caused a friend some serious heartache. I'm being the  _best_  bro. The  _best_." Geez, what was it with trolls and their weird hatelove? They were always trying to shove people into quadrants. He didn't really  _hate_ Karkat—he just wanted to support him and make sure nothing too bad happened to him, while simultaneously annoying the shit out of him and making his life a living hell. It wasn't  _hate,_ not the way humans experienced it. It was just…some strange form of affection.  _Very platonic affection_.

"Sure you aren't," Gamzee chuckled. "But there's just one motherfucking problem with you waxing black for my best friend."

"Yeah? And that is?"

Gamzee strained against his bonds so hard that the ropes creaked in protest. " _I'm_  his motherfucking kismesis! It's  _me!"_

Dave had to take a step back to keep himself from running the guy through then and there. "You're not. He'd never accept you after what you did. I don't give a shit how much hate makes your weird little troll brains tick, there's no way in hell he's being let near you again."

"Try and motherfucking  _stop_  me, brother."

"You want me to stop you?"

"If you motherfucking can." Gamzee smirked at him, confident. He thought nothing could kill him.

Well—Dave was about to prove him  _very wrong_.

He kicked Gamzee once, solidly, and rolled him onto his back. The troll couldn't even struggle due to the copious amounts of rope slapped over his arms and legs, and the sight of him sprawled there made Dave's stomach twist with vicious anticipation.  _I'm going to kill you,_ he thought, and even if it wasn't true and Gamzee's weird clown powers made him invincible, it was still a comforting concept. He aimed the point of his blade down at the center of Gamzee's chest and let it hover there. "You afraid yet?" he quipped. "Ready to beg for your life?"

"No need, brother."

Dave's lips curled up over his teeth in a nasty snarl. His cool was entirely gone, and he couldn't bring himself to care. "We'll see."

He brought the blade down, and Gamzee started screaming.

 

* * *

 

Karkat appeared out of nowhere a few weeks later.

Dave didn't even hear the guy enter the room. He just walked over and sat down next to him, and Dave looked over in surprise as he realized that Karkat Vantas, the troll he'd accidentally reduced to a huddled wreck on the floor, was voluntarily sitting next to him.

"Hey," Karkat said, voice low and rasping as if he hadn't used it for anything other than screaming in a month. Hell, maybe he hadn't.

Dave watched him from beneath the protective cover of his shades. He did look better now, with the bags under his eyes relatively lessened and his skeletal form a little softer. Briefly he considered his options. He could get all sappy and say that he hadn't realized what he'd been forced to go through, and that he was sorry for confronting him in the hallway and making his life a living hell—or he could just do what he normally did.

He thought he'd go with the second option.

"You look like shit," he teased, nudging Karkat with his elbow. " _Better_ shit, but still shit. Like, shit with a bow on top."

Karkat narrowed his eyes.

"A pretty pink bow."

He glared.

"With sparkles."

Karkat's head hit the table with a thunk, and he groaned, "You haven't changed."

"And?"

"And…" He shot him a glance out of the corner of his eye. "Apology accepted."

Dave nodded subtly. A little of the tension drained out of him. "How are you doing?"

"Better, now. Still having nightmares, but…they're getting better."

"Good. The sooner you get better, the sooner we can get back to using the projections of our long-repressed insecurities to beat the shit out of each other."

"Yes, because my day is  _so_ incomplete without your gaping maw spewing word detritus all up in my think pan. Jegus take me away, I've been dying of boredom for the past three weeks without you to entertain me. What a travesty."

The corners of Dave's lips quirked up just slightly.  _This_ —he'd missed this. He hadn't even realized how bored he'd been without it. "I'm sure you've been dying for my presence. Admit it, Karks, you're addicted to my legendary Strider charm."

"Oh, look at that! You're even more of an idiot than I had you pegged for. Call the press, Dave Strider is a fucking moron! I'm sure everyone back on my dead planet would just  _love_  to read about it."

He caught himself about to smile, really smile, and turned it into a smirk. "I'll only let you publish an article if I get to take photos to go along with it. What do you think about lingerie? The black, lacy kind? It'll really draw in the readers."

"I'm sure the temptation to puke will up our sales by fifty percent, if not more."

"Then let's just go for nudes and make it a hundred."

Karkat blushed. Honest to god  _blushed,_ red shading his cheeks adorably.

Dave grinned, teasing, "I win."

"Fuck off, you did not win! I'm still fully prepared to fight you, just  _watch—!"_

Dave laughed. He  _laughed_ , and it felt amazing. "Nah, I totally take this round. Making you blush means one point to me, no doubt about it. Keep up next time, would you? It's no fun if my opponent can't hold his own in the face of greatness."

"Fuck you!" Karkat screeched.

"Give it a few days and—hey!"

Karkat chucked an entire keyboard at him to follow up the mouse from a few moments ago. Dave caught it in midair with a snap of his fingers, suspending time and flicking it back at the nubby-horned troll with a wide smirk.

"Fuck off and let me hit you, you hornless excuse for an ape!"

"Careful what you wish for, Karkles," Dave teased, giving him a lighthearted shove. And oh—Karkat felt more  _solid_  than the last time he'd touched him, somehow, like he'd finally gotten something back that had been forcibly ripped away from him a long time ago.

Karkat's expression softened under that brief touch, growing slightly weary. "Hey," he said.

Dave opened his mouth to make some kind of snarky comment, but cut himself off before he could do it. Something was telling him to close his mouth for once in his life.

Karkat shuffled a little and leaned an elbow on the table. "All blathering aside, I…I heard what you did to Gamzee."

He stiffened. "I'm sorry, what?"

The troll narrowed his eyes. "You heard me, fuckass. Apparently Kanaya went to check on him and found him barely breathing. She didn't do it, and none of the other trolls did it, and that's not really Rose's style, so…the only person left is you." He looked down at his lap, miserable. "Gamzee can't really be killed, but still. I just—"

Karkat stopped again, face twisting like he'd swallowed something sour. Dave raised a brow.

The troll cringed, took a deep breath, and lowered his head. "Thank you," he whispered, like it was killing him. "For—for doing that for me."

Dave tried to nod coolly, but he had a feeling it wasn't nearly as composed as he wanted it to be. Because yeah, okay, his heart was racing a bit. Karkat wasn't one to thank people lightly, especially not when it involved the swallowing of his deadly pride. He knew, because he was normally the same way.

"No problem, bro," he said when he realized that Karkat was waiting for a response. "You annoy the shit out of me and all, but any fucking  _depraved_  piece of filth that tries that vile shit on you or  _anyone_ is going to get what they deserve."

Karkat stared. Then something in his expression shifted, flickering from nervousness to realization to a delighted sort of cunning, and Dave's stomach flipped. "Oh," he rumbled, and too late Dave wondered if he'd just managed to flirt with him accidentally. "In that case, no thanks necessary. Let's just pretend the entire fucking mess never happened, deal?"

Dave cocked a brow. For a moment he considered bringing up the flirting thing, derailing the hate train before it left the station. But Karkat looked happier than Dave had ever seen him, in his own growly, angry sort of way, and really—how shitty would Dave have to be to let him down after having gone through something so horrible?

Pretty shitty. He'd have to be pretty shitty.

…And anyway, maybe the flirting wasn't so bad.

Karkat reached over and stole a few chips off of Dave's forgotten plate, shoving them into his mouth. He snarled when Dave tried to push him over in retaliation, and then Dave had to catch his balance when Karkat shoved back. Karkat yelled, and Dave laughed. And yeah, maybe things weren't perfect. Maybe there was still a tinge of pain and fear in Karkat's eyes. Maybe that twinge would take a long, long time to go away. Maybe it never would.

But still. If he could help beat that pain and fear down, help Karkat keep smiling like that…

Well. Dave looked at Karkat's snarling, affectionately hateful face, and he knew.

He'd stick by Karkat for however long it took.

**Author's Note:**

> Well this was a fun little continuation! I might actually continue this series, but I'm not sure. In the meantime, if anyone has any prompts they want to shoot my way for oneshots or short stories or even something full length, I would absolutely love to hear them! I've kind of been wanting to write some friendsim stuff or some more DaveKat stuff, but I've been a little creatively stumped lately so I would appreciate the boost.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and don't hesitate to comment!


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